


To You, 2000 Years From Now

by lonely_no_more



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/F, Post Crystal!Annie, Reincarnated!Mikasa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 10:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16596437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonely_no_more/pseuds/lonely_no_more
Summary: Annie’s eyes shot open in terror, her vision still blurry. She gasped, hands scrambling to get traction and pull herself away from the woman. Annie looked around, confused by everything around her. It was all...white. Sterile white. There were strange people that she didn’t know and strange equipment that she couldn’t quite make heads or tails of. “Who-” her voice was hoarse from disuse. “Who the fuck are you? Where am I?”“You’re at St. Maria’s Hospital,” the woman’s voice answered. She stepped forward through the crowd to stand beside Annie’s bedside.Her breath caught in her throat. “M-Mikasa...” She tried to back away further but found herself tumbling off the edge and hitting the floor hard. Annie’s legs still weren’t working as well as she wanted and so all she could do was back herself against the far wall. “Don’t- don’t touch me.”A look of concern and confusion settled on the woman’s features. “How...do you know my name?”





	To You, 2000 Years From Now

Everything was very fuzzy. Her hearing was slowly returning and though she opened her eyes, she couldn’t make anything out except light and dark shapes. It was so strange breathing for the first time since she had entered the crystal. 

“It looks like she’s finally waking up!” 

A man was speaking. She didn’t recognize the voice. 

“Be quiet, you idiot, don’t startle her.” 

The woman’s voice was so familiar. It was soft- a whisper- but it was a voice that she felt like she had heard before. Right before she remembered the crystal enveloping her. 

Annie’s eyes shot open in terror, her vision still blurry. She gasped, hands scrambling to get traction and pull herself away from the woman. Annie looked around, confused by everything around her. It was all...white. Sterile white. There were strange people that she didn’t know and strange equipment that she couldn’t quite make heads or tails of. “Who-” her voice was hoarse from disuse. “Who the fuck are you? Where am I?” 

“You’re at St. Maria’s Hospital,” the woman’s voice answered. She stepped forward through the crowd to stand beside Annie’s bedside. 

Her breath caught in her throat. “M-Mikasa...” She tried to back away further but found herself tumbling off the edge and hitting the floor hard. Annie’s legs still weren’t working as well as she wanted and so all she could do was back herself against the far wall. “Don’t- don’t touch me.” 

A look of concern and confusion settled on the woman’s features. “How...do you know my name?”

Annie blinked. There were similarities between this woman and the Mikasa she remembered- dark hair, grey eyes, utterly gorgeous- but there was no scar on her cheek. And she didn’t look like a hardened soldier. “You...don’t know who I am...?”

“Well, we recovered some records when we found you but it wasn’t a lot...” a man said from the back. “We know your name is Annie Leonhardt.” 

“And in the documents it says you were a titan shifter,” Mikasa added. “But...the existence of titans is highly questionable. So we’re not sure of the credibility. Especially since no remains were ever recovered.” 

The existence of titans was...questionable? “But...titans are real. I am...” Annie halted. “...was...a shifter. I...don’t know how I’m alive. I thought I had died.” Even quieter, she added, “I wish I had...”

Mikasa asked, “Annie, how did you know my name?”

“Were you named after someone?” Annie responded. 

“There were records that had the name Mikasa in there and my mother liked it, so she named me that.” 

Annie chuckled, a dark sound. “You look almost exactly like her.” 

The man interjected, “You knew the people in the records?” 

“Yeah. I trained with them. And betrayed them,” she admitted softly. 

The woman named after Mikasa approached Annie and knelt in front of her. She was about to speak when a man from the back laughed, “Looks like your first big case just tried to run away from you, Ishikawa.” 

“ _Dr_. Ishikawa,” she corrected sharply. Mikasa rose to her feet quickly and turned to look at the man directly. “We’ve had this discussion before, Agent Bradley. I am not one of your agents.” 

Bradley looked disgruntled but sighed, “Sorry,  _Dr_. Ishikawa.” 

Mikasa nodded and then returned her attention to Annie, kneeling in front of her again. “Miss Leonhardt-”

“Annie.”

“Uhm...” Mikasa blinked, looking a little shocked by the correction.

“You can just call me Annie,” she murmured. 

Smiling gently, Mikasa replied, “All right. Annie.” She held out her hand and waited patiently as she announced, “I’d really like to talk to you about everything when you feel up to it.” 

Annie stared at her, seeming to weigh Mikasa’s honesty. Then, slowly, she put her hand in Mikasa’s and answered, “Ok.” 

* * *

 

As it turned out, the Mikasa that Annie knew and the Mikasa she had recently met weren’t so different. She was still serious about her work and was caring in an almost motherly way, if it was with the right person. One such person being her assistant, Yelena, who also looked familiar to Annie. It was a little comforting, actually, to see similarities. 

“So, you’re saying you actually are a titan shifter?” Mikasa questioned. 

“ _Was_ , to my knowledge. Though I haven’t tried to shift or anything,” Annie replied lightly. “I would’ve expected to have died because of the Curse...”

“Curse?” The pen in Mikasa’s hand paused as she glanced up at Annie. 

Annie found the fact that Mikasa wore glasses to be endearing. “The Curse of Ymir,” she answered. “Anyone with one of the Nine Titans was cursed to live for thirteen years after they got the ability. I was past the halfway mark when I went into the crystal.” 

Mikasa began writing again. “Admittedly, I was brought on for your case because they expected you to be dead if the crystal ever broke. I’m a forensic anthropologist. I study human remains to identify them and determine cause of death.”

She couldn’t help the laugh that left her throat. “Even thousands of years later, you deal with death and cutting flesh.” 

“Quite a bit of my work is with bones but sometimes I do get remains with some flesh,” Mikasa noted casually. “But I do deal with death daily, yes.” 

“So...since I’m not dead, why are you still on the case?” Annie questioned slowly. “Not that I’m complaining,” she added, “I’m just curious.” 

Dr. Ishikawa raised her head again and peered at Annie over the rims of her glasses. “Well, I suppose...I am still a doctor and have vast knowledge of the human body. So if anything were to happen, I’d still be able to take care of the situation.” She smiled faintly. “Would you like to come see my lab?”

“Lab?” Annie had been allowed out of the hospital and was staying in a guarded hotel room not far from Mikasa’s apartment as well as the museum’s labs. It had been an interesting day for Annie, seeing as she had never seen a car before and seeing the city was a huge shock for her. She followed Mikasa out to the parking lot and tilted her head a little when the doctor held the car door open for her. “Is it normal for people to hold car doors for others?”

“Not necessarily,” Mikasa answered. “I just think it’s polite.” Then, she shut the door and got into the driver’s seat. As soon as she turned the engine on, music started to play a bit loudly and Mikasa hurriedly turned it down. “Sorry about that. I had the windows open on my way over.” 

“What kind of music was that?” 

“Uhh...it’s called pop music. It typically has a...pretty moderate beat and is considered pretty good party music,” Mikasa explained. 

Annie nodded slowly. “Not bad. It’s definitely weird to me but...almost everything is now. So much has changed.” The rest of the car ride was primarily silent, save for Mikasa singing along with the radio. Another similarity with Ackerman- Dr. Ishikawa had a beautiful voice. When Mikasa led her into the lab, Annie’s eyes widened. She was surrounded with all sorts of technology. And she had only just gotten the hang of television. 

“Dexter! Dexter!” Mikasa called.

“The serial killer?” Annie questioned. 

Mikasa blinked. “How do you know about that show?”

“I didn’t have much else to do in that hospital room, so I watched a lot of TV.” Then, she heard the click of nails on tile and her eyes widened, seeing a dog. “You have a dog in the lab?”

“This is my Labrador, Dexter!” she answered cheerfully. “He’s mine. He’s also a trained cadaver dog. I take him to scenes and he sniffs out the bodies.” 

There was a minute before Annie mumbled, “Can you have a dog in the lab? Is that allowed?”

“He’s got his own lab coat and goggles. Besides, when I start working on a skeleton or other remains, I give him a rawhide to chew on. It keeps him busy.” She patted his head and smiled when he approached Annie, sniffing at her curiously. “Don’t worry, he’s just interested to know who you are. He’s very friendly,” Mikasa reassured her. 

Dexter sniffed at Annie’s boots and then raised his head to sniff at her hands, gingerly licking her knuckles. He seemed pleased when Annie gently scratched his head and his tail began to wag. The dog followed obediently as Mikasa began to show Annie around. They ended up sitting in the lounge area, sipping coffee together. 

“So...I haven’t asked you before...how did you know Mikasa Ackerman- the one I was named after?”

Annie felt her breath catch in her throat for a moment before she set her coffee down on the table. “I told you a little bit about my hometown. And how I was part of the Warrior Program.” She watched as Mikasa nodded simply. “Well...my hometown was really an internment zone that was part of Marley- if a bit begrudgingly. I was sent with a few other Warriors to the island of Paradis...meant to infiltrate and recover the Founding Titan. Because if we could get the Founding Titan, then we’d be able to control all the titans. Even the aberrant ones.” 

Mikasa nodded again. “So how did you get in and infiltrate...?”

Pain was visible in Annie’s features as she explained, “My titan wasn’t large enough to get us inside. Paradis had a huge wall that was...made of titans with hardening abilities. I had a similar power. But...Bertholdt...was the Colossal Titan. Fifty meters tall, the same height as the walls. He kicked a hole in the wall and not only did it get us in...but it also let in aberrant titans.” Annie lowered her head into her hands and took a deep breath. “So many people died. Civilians. Innocent people.”

“Annie...you...don’t have to talk about it yet. I know it must be hard,” Mikasa stated, reaching out and resting her hand on Annie’s shoulder. 

Slowly, Annie shook her head and sighed. “No. It’s ok.” She continued, “That day...Eren Jaeger lost his mother. And Mikasa Ackerman lost her family for a second time.” 

The doctor’s eyes widened in slight horror. “A...second time...?” 

“Within the walls...Mikasa and her mother were the last Asians. Mikasa was only half. Her father was an Eldian. Or, at least, thought he was.”

“What do you mean?”

Annie raised her head to look at Mikasa seriously. “I’m about to give you a lot of information. More than just how I knew the person you were named after. Do you want to take notes?” 

Mikasa shook her head. “No. Not right now.” She moved her hand from Annie’s shoulder to take her hand instead. “I’m listening.” 

“Let me begin by explaining how Mikasa lost her family the first time. And then I’ll explain what I meant about her father.” When she saw Mikasa nod in understanding, Annie began, “As the last Asians...Mikasa and her mother were...valuable commodities.” She saw Mikasa’s face twist with realization and then anger. “When I heard this story, I was...shocked. And disgusted,” Annie murmured, agreeing with the doctor’s expression. “Well. Long story short, her parents were killed right in front of her when the traffickers came. Mikasa’s mother wasn’t supposed to be killed but she fought back, apparently. Mikasa...was taken. But then rescued by Eren. They were nine, I think.” 

“Nine years old?” Mikasa asked. 

She grunted in confirmation. “Eren nearly died during the scuffle but something happened in Mikasa. And this is where her father comes in. The Ackerman bloodline was a sub-product of the science that created titans.” 

“The Ackerman bloodline...was manufactured?” The doctor looked shocked, a little confused but mostly heartbroken. 

“More or less. They were designed to be super soldiers. The perfect hybrid of titan strength and the stability of the human lifespan. But there was an apparent defect. They didn’t display the titanic strength unless they underwent extreme emotional trauma. However, this would give them the ability to use their strength and inherent senses at any time. It was constant, instead of what shifters like me had to do. We had to cause physical injury to trigger the shift.” Annie hung her head and sighed. “Mikasa Ackerman...worth one hundred soldiers. I...was terrified of her,” Annie chuckled darkly. “Too fucking smart and too fucking strong. She confronted me, one day, because she had found my ring. I knew. I  _knew_  right then that she knew I was a titan shifter.” Her expression softened and even grew a little sad. “I don’t know why she didn’t kill me right then. I don’t know why she gave me my ring back.”

“Maybe...she wanted to trust you,” Mikasa suggested quietly. She could tell by the look on Annie’s face that this was a surprising suggestion. “How long did you know one another before that incident?”

“Six years, I think. I was ten when we infiltrated the walls. And sixteen when I entered the crystal.”

Mikasa’s expression once again took on a veil of horror as she whispered, “You were  _child soldiers_?” 

Annie blinked. “Well, yeah?” 

“That’s not normal!” Mikasa protested. “Annie, you were  _children_.  _Children_ , sent out to  _kill_ and  _die_ ; trained by a fucking  _government_!” She took her glasses off and pinched the bridge of her nose before looking back at Annie. “Don’t you think that’s strange? For a government made up of adults to have children trained as soldiers?” Mikasa couldn’t control her outrage and she had to push her coffee just a little further away so she didn’t accidentally knock it over. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry but that just...disgusts me.”

“I...never really thought about it. To me, it was normal,” Annie mumbled quietly, her eyes falling to the floor. She rubbed the back of her neck and felt a wave of nausea settle on her stomach. “I was so young when my dad began to train me so I could get the female titan...” She startled a little when she felt something nudge her hand and she was shocked to see Dexter looking up at her with sad eyes. 

Mikasa chuckled a little. “He noticed you looked sad. He’s worried about you.” A minute passed while she watched Annie simply pet Dexter, a soft smile curling her lips. “Dogs are amazing animals,” she murmured. 

“I like dogs,” she admitted, “I like cats too. It’s weird but animals always seemed to like me. Despite the fact that I was a monster.” 

“Then, you were never really a monster,” Mikasa observed. “Animals are good judges of character. They’ll stay away from people who they sense are bad. They must’ve seen that you were really good on the inside.” 

Annie smiled gently and lowered her head, pressing it to Dexter’s head. She laughed when she pulled back and saw that the dog’s eyes were closed and he appeared to be smiling. “Well...I hope you’re right,” Annie said softly. “I really hope you’re right.”

* * *

 

It happened one night that Mikasa had brought Annie back to her apartment for a home cooked dinner that the blonde finally decided to say something about the dark circles that had begun to appear around Mikasa’s eyes. “Mikasa, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, really, just stress probably-” She stopped abruptly when she caught the glare on Annie’s face. The doctor went quiet and then turned back to what she was doing, trying to steady her hand so she could cut vegetables. Her hand tightened around the knife, knuckles going white. “We all have bad dreams- burdens to carry. Don’t we?” 

A weird feeling of  _déjà vu_ settled over her as she stood there in the kitchen, looking at Mikasa seriously. Only now, the tables were turned. “But what’s the burden you carry now? Your job is difficult. You’ve told me about that. You’ve told me about your family. It’s something other than that and I know it.” 

Mikasa’s shoulders rose and she finally put the knife aside, instead leaning against the counter. “I’ve been having nightmares. More like...flashbacks, really. I see things that you’ve described to me but instead of it being from your point of view, I’m seeing it through someone else’s eyes.”

“You’re seeing it through  _her_  eyes, probably,” Annie replied slowly. “Your own eyes.” 

Quietly, her voice hardly louder than a whisper, Mikasa questioned, “You mean...like a past life?” 

“It’s possible, isn’t it?” Annie asked, taking a step forward. She finally stood right beside Mikasa and placed a hand over hers. “If you’ve been remembering these things in more detail than I could’ve provided...” Her eyes remained on Mikasa’s face, watching her expression carefully. She mumbled, “Can you accept it?” 

Mikasa nodded solemnly and turned, facing Annie fully. If anything, this Mikasa might’ve been taller than the one Annie knew because it almost felt as if she towered over Annie. “Why are you suddenly being so understanding?” Mikasa pondered, staring down at her intensely. “I thought you were afraid of me.” 

Though Annie opened her mouth to protest at first, she saw the faint twitch at the corner of Mikasa’s lips and realized she was teasing. “Why should I be afraid of you, Mikasa? You act as if you’re actually terrifying,” Annie retorted. They stared at one another steadily until Annie felt a hand touch her cheek. Blinking, she realized that Mikasa was cupping her face. Her face started to burn slightly as she muttered, “W-what are you doing?”

“I’m not quite sure,” Mikasa responded quietly, tilting Annie’s head up so they were once more looking at each other. “I feel like talking to you and learning about your version of the past...was just like talking to you after a long absence.” She chuckled and admitted, “But if I’m just a reincarnation of the Mikasa you knew, maybe that’s what this is.” 

“I don’t seem to remember that Mikasa ever cupping my face and looking like a lovesick fool,” Annie retorted, trying to sound sarcastic. 

That seemed to amuse Mikasa further and she smiled. “Perhaps I just needed a lot of time to forgive. And an even longer time to fall myself.” 

Annie’s eyes widened slightly. “Fall?”

“Fall in love.” Her thumb moved, raising over Annie’s chin to softly brush her lower lip. Grey eyes were hooded and there was a certain warmth there that Annie had never seen before. 

Panic welled in Annie’s chest as she realized that Mikasa was starting to lean in and her eyes wrenched shut when she could feel the heat of Mikasa’s breath ghost over her lips. When there still wasn’t any movement, she cracked one eye open to see that Mikasa had stopped just short of kissing her. “Why did you-”

“May I?”

Annie blinked, actually feeling confused. “Excuse me?”

“May I kiss you?” Mikasa asked softly. 

They stared at one another again, almost seemingly gauging each other’s reactions. But after a moment, Annie whispered, “Yes.” Her eyes slid shut again and Annie wasn’t sure what to expect until she felt soft lips press against her own. 

Briefly, there was just a moment where they took in the physical feeling of kissing- the warm, soft flesh moving gently and being able to feel another person so much closer than they normally allowed. 

Then, it was almost as if the emotions welled and broke all at once; Annie felt tears burn at the corners of her eyes and slide down her cheeks. Her breath hitched when they parted briefly and she opened her eyes to see that Mikasa was crying too. “What the- Mikasa, why are you crying?” Annie asked. 

“I don’t know,” Mikasa answered, sniffling. “I’m feeling so much- but it’s like relief. I feel like I finally understand you and the flashbacks make so much more sense.” 

Annie reached up and tugged Mikasa back down into another kiss. “Mikasa, just shut up and hold me.” Through the tears, she started to laugh a bit when the surprise on Mikasa’s face just looked comical.


End file.
